Ningbo, also Ning-po, city, eastern China, in Zhejiang Province, a major fishing port and an industrial center on the Yong River. The port has an outer harbor for oceangoing vessels downstream at Zhenhai and is linked by canal to Shanghai and other cities of the populous Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) delta. Manufactures of Ningbo include processed food, textiles, machinery, tools, and fishing equipment.
An important foreign trade center as early as the 5th century AD, the city was given the name Liampo by Portuguese merchants who began trading here in 1545. It was one of the original treaty ports opened to foreign commerce in 1842 but was eclipsed as a foreign trade port later in the 19th century by the development of Shanghai. The city was known as Ninghsein from 1911 to 1949, when it was renamed Ningbo. Population (1991) 1,145,219.
